Water for All - (Building a Moral Economy) by Christiana Zenner (Paperback)

About the Book

Written from an intersectional, anti-colonial feminist stance, Water for All is a moral, spiritual, and political-ecological invitation to consider how human modes of meaning-making can shape water futures toward inclusive flourishing. Readers are equipped to envision and seek change at individual, institutional, and structural levels.

Book Synopsis

Waters swirl in oceans and atmospheric rivers, flow through our bodies, circulate in surface and groundwater, and determine the shape of livelihoods, cultures, histories, geologies, and life on Earth. Yet water's meanings are too often constrained, especially by predatory economic, extractive practices and the structures that support them. These patterns continue to lead to pollution, scarcity, and constraint of waters worldwide, imperiling human and more-than-human lives.

Other ways of regarding and relating to waters are possible. To centralize waters' vitalities, each chapter in Water for All invites the reader to learn about constructive, alternative water-visions and water-practices from contexts and ways of understanding and relating to water around the world. Along the way, the book diagnoses key patterns that constrain waters' possibilities for flowing toward justice; it invites the reader to consider how specific topics like agriculture and food choices, or technology and AI, relate to water demand; and it provides specific catalysts for spiritual-moral reflection alongside practical suggestions for readers to engage these topics directly in their own lives.

Written from an intersectional, anti-colonial feminist stance, Water for All is a moral, spiritual, and political-ecological invitation to consider how human modes of meaning-making can shape water futures toward inclusive flourishing. Like all books in the Building a Moral Economy series, Water for All is oriented around techniques for envisioning and seeking change at individual, institutional, and structural levels.

Review Quotes

For too long, we humans have seen water as a resource for our pleasure, convenience, and profit, and not as the sacred life-giving force that it is. Water for All offers wonderful stories of people and communities who see water as a human right, a public trust, and a gift from the Creator, and who work to seek water justice for all. In these difficult political times, this book is a beacon of hope and a path forward for those with the heart to follow. --Maude Barlow, activist and author of Earth for Sale: The Fight to Stop the Last Plunder of the Planet

Water for All is a life-giving book that flows with wisdom and inspiration! Christiana Zenner offers a master class in how to do ethics, as well as a deep exploration of the meaning and state of water in our world. She blends personal narrative, social analysis, theological insight, and poignant case studies with a light touch that makes it a pleasure to read. On top of all that, Zenner directs you to top-notch resources for further study. For anyone who wants to come to a deeper understanding of water, including easy-to-read directions for how to make things better, this book will hit the spot. Water for All is a "handbook for action" with heart, soul, and imagination. --Karenna Gore, executive director, Center for Earth Ethics and teaching professor of practice of earth ethics, Union Theological Seminary in New York

This excellent book is an invitation to a moral relationship with the waters on which all life depends and with the peoples who understand and protect water best. Alongside that invitation, Christiana Zenner offers the tools needed for such a commitment: philosophical and theological insight, attention to the wisdom of indigenous and marginalized communities, political savvy, economic creativity, practical strategies, courageous truth-telling, and a generous spirit. Read to be inspired, empowered, and challenged! --Kevin O'Brien, professor of Christian and environmental ethics, Pacific Lutheran University, and author of Meeting the Enemy: The Fossil Fuel Industry and the Power of Christian Climate Resistance

Water for All is an invitation for us to think more deeply about water as more than something that makes us wet when touched, but also something that sustains us and challenges us to cherish the multitudes of life surrounding us to create healthier lives today and lay the foundation for generations yet to come. More than a splash, Christiana Zenner gives us an ever-flowing stream. --Emilie M. Townes, Martin Luther King, Jr. Professor of Religion and Black Studies, Boston University School of Theology

In Water for All, Christiana Zenner accomplishes what too few texts manage: to be at once relevant, highly engaging, and analytically robust. With illuminating examples, pithy turns of phrase, and clearly defined terms, Zenner nimbly traverses many streams, including the scientific, the theological, the moral, and the practical. The analysis is both thought-provoking and accessible for people in varied disciplines, professions, and points in their learning about "all things water." She offers readers substantive discussion questions, concrete strategies, and timely resources throughout. This book is an essential dialogue partner for anyone who wants to understand holistically the complexities of water--its myriad challenges, the uncertain access to it, and how the well-being and futures of all living things are intimately bound up with its health and future. Most of all, in writing this powerful work, Zenner shares a vibrant moral vision and hope for all of us navigating this particular, precarious, fragile time in the histories of both water and humanity. --Aana Marie Vigen, professor of Christian social ethics, Loyola University Chicago